Mapping the spawning grounds of northern North Sea gadoids

Following the meeting of Scientific Expert Committee in 2002, regular monitoring of the spawning grounds of important commercial species has been recommended as an important component of ecosystem approach to marine conservation. This study reports the results from real-time PCR based approach for identification of cod, haddock, Norway pout and whiting in the sub sample of early developmental stage ‘‘cod-like'' eggs collected during 2009 second ichthyoplankton survey covering the northern North Sea. The results were in general agreement with the historical information of the spawning grounds of cod and haddock that showed significant egg abundance around the Shetlands, Link and Viking Banks. These areas were broadly overlapping with known spawning locations since the last decades. However, the current study failed to detect cod eggs at the historic spawning locations such as that off the Moray Firth and low abundance of spawning products was registered at Long Forties. Haddock eggs were the most abundant during the whole survey which is thought to reflect the current status of the stock.